American skier Lindsey Vonn may have raced for the last time at the Vancouver Olympics after crashing out of Wednesday"s giant slalom and fracturing a finger.
Jim Moeller, the US team"s chief medical officer, said the downhill gold medallist had suffered a "non-displaced fracture of the proximal phalanx of the small finger in her right hand".
The team said a decision on whether she would compete in Friday"s slalom had yet to be taken.
Twisted: Lindsey Vonn tumbles out of the giant slalom at the Winter Olympics
"My body is okay, I"m just frustrated and disappointed in myself," said Vonn. "I"m going to see how I feel tomorrow and make a call on the slalom."
Vonn lost her balance, twisted and careered into the safety netting in the first run of the giant slalom held in gloomy conditions with snow falling.
The leading light of the US women"s team, who also won a bronze in super-G but crashed out of the super combined, got back to her feet and skied down the side of the hill.
"I went a little bit too inside, lost the outside ski and was tangled up in the fence before I could really think about it," she said. "I was hoping to try again for a medal but it just wasn"t my day."
Going home? Vonn could now pull out of the rest of the competition in Canada
Vonn has been on the podium five times in slalom in the World Cupwith two wins. Her last podium finish in the discipline was in Novemberin Levi, Finland.
Team mate Julia Mancuso, the defending Olympic champion, was nextout of the start hut and was released while Vonn was still beingattended to.
Her run was halted and she was allowed a re-start, but herconcentration was shattered and she left the finish area in tears aftercompleting the re-scheduled run with a time well outside the top 10. "Iknow she"s disappointed, I feel terrible that I crashed," said Vonn.
More...WINTER OLYMPICS 2010: Great Britain on the slide ... but BOA boss backs our losersWINTER OLYMPICS 2010: Nicola Minichiello sees her medal hopes fade in the blizzard
No comments:
Post a Comment